Czech Republic to fund Iran investments

The Czech Republic says its plans to allocate a credit line of €100 million to support Iran’s infrastructure projects.

The announcement was made by Czech Ambassador to Tehran Svatopluk Cumba who said an agreement to the same effect would be signed between the two countries in the near future.

Cumba added that there had been an increase of 60 percent in exports from the Czech Republic to Iran over the past year.

He emphasized that a significant number of his country’s businesses were eager to enter the Iranian market to use its potentials.

The value of Iran’s trade activities with the Czech Republic reached a total of $27.1 million over first half of 2017, IRNA added quoting official figures. This, it said, was higher than the corresponding period last year.

The announcement of a new credit line for Iran investments follows several other recent moves in the same direction.

In late September, the Islamic Republic saw a historic opening in banking relations with Europe in September after banks from Austria, Denmark and France signed deals to establish credit lines for investments in the country.

The biggest such credit line was created by Austria’s Oberbank which signed deals with 14 Iranian private companies to allocate €1 billion for investments by Austrian companies in the country.

Another was created by Denmark’s Danske Bank with a total lending value of €500 million.

To the same effect, France’s state investment bank Bpifrance (BPI) announced plans to support French enterprises in their investments in Iran.